Outlining Your Options to Pay for Nursing Home Care

As part of your estate planning process, it’s important to consider how you will pay for nursing home or other long-term care in the event it becomes necessary later in life. Although this long-term care can be very expensive, there are ways you can get assistance outside using your personal finances alone.

The following provides a quick look at two of those methods of assistance.

Medicaid

Even if you have to start off by paying for your nursing home care out of pocket, eventually your available funds will decrease to the point where you may qualify for Medicaid. You will be able to cover most healthcare and long-term care costs with Medicaid, so long as you meet the program’s requirements. The majority of nursing homes accept Medicaid payments.

You might even be able to earn eligibility for Medicaid for nursing home care coverage, even if you do not qualify for other uses of Medicaid. Carefully look into each potential nursing home’s policies so that you know whether there’s a chance you will qualify.

Long-term care insurance

Your other primary assistance option is long-term care insurance. Depending on the type of policy you have, this insurance could pay for many different types of care, including nursing homes, assisted living, some types of home care and adult day care.

Do some research into the types of policies available to you, and whether you potentially qualify for discounts on a policy based on your status as a former member of the armed forces, if you worked for the federal government or if you are retired from another qualifying career. Also keep in mind that some long-term care policies have limitations for pre-existing conditions, so carefully read up on each policy before you select one.

For more information on how you can pay for nursing home care, speak with an experienced Florida estate planning lawyer at BaumannKangas Estate Law.